It may be the year of the pig in China, but in the world of avalanche fatalities, the season is shaping up to be the year of the sledneck. Of the 14 avalanche fatalities this winter in North America, 10 were on snowmobiles. Last Saturday, Feb. 17, avalanches in three statesÂ – Utah, Idaho and Montana – caught seven backcountry slednecks, killing five. In Montana, the pair of snowmobilers killed that day near the town of Townsend marked the state’s fourth and fifth snowmobiling avalanche deaths of the season.